North’s barristers scale back action on fees
Barristers in the North have scaled back their withdrawal of some services in a dispute over fees.
In a statement on Friday (28 February), the Criminal Bar Association (CBA) said that the decision was taken after “positive” engagement with the North’s Department of Justice in recent weeks.
It added, however, that the talks had not created the conditions for the CBA to advise its members to halt their action entirely.
Criminal barristers in the North have also been refusing to take new instructions in certain categories of cases since the beginning of November 2024. In January, the CBA voted to extend this action to more categories of cases.
Some action to continue
From 1 March, however, the January and February escalation ended, and the CBA has now returned to dealing with cases listed before the Crown Court.
Barristers will still refuse, however, to accept instructions in defined classes of new Crown Court cases (Category A, retrials, and multi-compliant Category D cases).
The CBA’s action was taken in response to a failure to raise legal fees associated with criminal-legal-aid work in 20 years.
Justice Minister Naomi Long said last month that she would deliver a 16% increase in criminal legal-aid fees as soon as possible but also warned that there was a process to go through – including legislation to underpin the increases.